Prep football: No. 12 Fremd outlasts Rolling Meadows 21-20

Fremd took the first punch but delivered the knockout blow Thursday in a Mid-Suburban crossover in Palatine.

The Vikings rallied from a six-point deficit and scored the decisive touchdown with 1 minute 49 seconds left in a 21-20 win.

Evan Wright, who gained 181 yards on 30 carries, changed direction on a 40-yard run for his third score of the night.

"We were going to run a counter, fake left, go right," Wright said. "They all started to overpursue, so I cut it back to the left."

Rolling Meadows (2-2) was thinking upset after jumping out to a 7-0 lead on a 12-yard pass from Jim Garoppolo to Tony Taibi, completing a 10-play, 66-yard drive to start the game. Garoppolo had the hot hand all evening, completing 18 of 33 passes for 234 yards.

Fremd (4-0) finally got its offense going in the second half, when Rich Concialdi took over at quarterback. He connected on two pass plays on a drive that ended with a 19-yard scoring run by Wright.

After trading touchdowns, the Mustangs regained the lead on Garrett Peterson's 1-yard plunge with 7:01 left in the fourth to take a 20-14 lead, but the extra-point attempt bounced off the left upright.

"We were told to stay calm and not panic," Wright said of the team's talk at halftime.

"That's not Fremd football," Wright added. "That's not what we do. We weren't making the right blocks, we weren't making the right reads."

Concialdi sat in favor of Billy Payne to start the game because of Payne's speed.

"We were real confident coming out of the locker room going into the second half," Concialdi said.

James Szafranski sealed the win for Fremd with 49 seconds left, intercepting Garoppolo at the Mustangs' 43. He nearly picked off a pass on the previous play.